


Flowers in Russia

by ljummen (Vendelin)



Series: Tumblr prompts [1]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Not Hockey Player(s), Evgeni Malkin Is Not a Hockey Player, M/M, Summer Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 23:24:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15035603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vendelin/pseuds/ljummen
Summary: Sid goes to Russia during the summer. He’s got a room at this tiny hotel in an older part of the city. The lady at the front desk barely speaks English, but they make due with hand gestures and google translate.





	Flowers in Russia

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was first posted on [tumblr](http://ljummen.tumblr.com/post/174210437195/7-34-3). It was written for the fanfiction trope mash-up. 
> 
> _that-thing-you-roo_ prompted: Florist AU + Vacation fic

Sid goes to Russia during the summer. He’s got a room at this tiny hotel in an older part of the city. The lady at the front desk barely speaks English, but they make due with hand gestures and google translate.

They serve incredible breakfast and he usually has a plate with fruit and some chocolate in his room when he gets back from his adventures at the end of the day.

However, it’s the guy who has the flower shop across the street that really catches Sid’s attention. At night, when it’s closed, it looks like a regular shop with a window that probably should’ve been cleaned before the summer. During the day, though, there are baskets with flowers in heaps outside the front.

Sid notices the first morning he’s there, because the colors pop like rainbows to his tired, jet lagged eyes.

He’s never been that much for flowers, honestly, but they smell incredible whenever he walks past on his way out to a new museum, or on his way back for a nap after lunch.

The guy who works there recognizes him the second day and waves, with a big smile when Sid walks past.

“You tourist?” he asks.

* * *

 

“How can you tell?”

The guy shrugs and grins. “Maybe camera, maybe map, maybe confuse face.”

It’s the best English Sid’s heard in this part of town, so he’s intrigued. “Your English is great,” he says.

The guy pulls a face and he looks a bit ridiculous when he does. He looks really hot when he doesn’t, though. “Not so good. I’m still learn. You here now, good for practice.”

“Sure,” Sid hears himself say. Maybe it’s because he’s at least a head taller than Sid and has kind eyes. Maybe it’s because he’s happy to finally be able to talk to someone about other things than pointing to what he wants on a menu, or showing a location on the map and getting confusing directions in return.

The guy lights up. “You do? For me?”

Sid shrugs. “It’s not a problem. Not a lot of people know English around here.”

“Is small town, not so much tourist.” The guy shrugs. “I’m Evgeni. You call Geno.”

“I’m Sid,” Sid says and shakes his hand. And Sid doesn’t have particularly small hands, but Geno’s swallow his without effort.

They decide on a time later that evening at a café at the end of the street. Sid has walked past it every day since he got here, but Geno swears it’s good, and who’s he going to trust if not the locals?

Geno hands him a yellow flower when he arrives, ten minutes late. “Is for thanks,” he explains when Sid’s face starts to heat.

“Oh.”

It’s mostly conversation, but Sid learns that Geno used to play hockey until it got too expensive and he took over his grandmother’s flower shop when she got too old—she died last year. Geno looks away when he tells Sid about that particular part.

He clearly doesn’t know who Sid is, even when Sid tells him that he plays hockey for a living. Sid asks the lady at the front desk for a vase when he gets home several hours later and looks at the yellow flower until he falls asleep.

His mom identifies it as a marigold when he texts her a picture the next morning.

The next day, Sid gets a blue flower as a thank you for his time. (His mom tells him it’s a bellflower.)

He learns that Geno has a brother, Denis, and that his parents still live in the industrial town where he grew up. Geno avoids the question when Sid asks why he moved here, and just tells the story about his grandmother’s shop again. But there’s clearly something more to it. Sid is sure of it.

The next day, Sid offers to buy Geno dinner and they go to a restaurant instead. He learns that Geno takes online classes when he can and hopes that maybe he can expand his lone shop into a chain somehow. Sid is on the verge of telling him that he’d invest anything Geno needs to make that happen, but he doesn’t think that’s what Geno wants. He gets a pink flower when they walk past Geno’s shop on the way back to Sid’s hotel. (Azalea, Sid’s mom informs him later).

And it goes on and on during Sid’s three week stay, to the point where he has a colorful bouquet in his hotel room window and a flutter in his stomach when he meets up with Geno the last night of his vacation.

Geno is sullen and avoids Sid’s gaze. For once he doesn’t talk much.

“What’s wrong?” Sid asks, shifting in his chair and the food in front of him doesn’t seem to interesting now—he was starving just thirty minutes ago.

“Nothing,” Geno says, but he picks at his food and focuses more on his wine.

“Okay,” Sid says. If Geno doesn’t want to tell him, he doesn’t have to.

Geno is quiet all through dinner and during their walk back. He does make Sid wait outside the shop on their way back, though. This time, the flower he comes out with is red, and Sid doesn’t need to ask his mom for this one. It’s a rose.

“I know I’m not tell you, and maybe you mad little bit now.” Geno looks at the rose and bites his lip. But then there’s nothing.

“What?” Sid prompts, heart racing behind his ribs.

“Hard to say.”

Sid reaches out slowly, giving Geno a chance to back away, and takes his hand. Geno stills and his hand squeezes reflexively around Sid’s.

“Think I’m little bit fall in love,” Geno says, voice so quiet that Sid can barely hear it.

And Sid kisses him before he has a chance to back out. And kisses him again when Geno has ushered them inside the shop. And again when Geno falls asleep after having sex.

He leaves his phone number on a note on Geno’s nightstand with prompt instructions to text him as soon as possible. His flight leaves early, and Sid hates goodbyes.

It’s six months later when Sid stands in the airport, clutching a bouquet of flowers—every kind Geno got for him during his stay in Russia—waiting. Any minute now.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to come hang out with me on [tumblr](http://ljummen.tumblr.com)!


End file.
